Freedom Ship • Nobody Gonna Turn Me Around • United No More! • The School Is Not White •
The Secret Seder • In The Promised Land • John's Secret Dreams • Free at Last! •
Victory or Death! •  We Are the Many •  NO MORE! • Martin's Big Words •  Freedom River • 
Dirt on Their Skirts • Escape from Slavery • Boston Coffee Party •  Be the Judge/Be the Jury

 

Freedom Ship

  1. When Abraham told Samuel’s father that the Captain would “whip” them in the morning, why wasn’t Papa afraid?
  2. Why did the boat need to move slowly and carefully in the water?
  3. How does Robert Smalls pretend that he is the Captain of The Planter?
  4. Why did Papa take down the Confederate flag as they approached the Union ships?
  5. Why did Samuel’s mother give Papa a bed sheet to hang on the flagpole?
  6. What was the present that The Planter brought for the Union?
  7. If you were Samuel, explain how you would have felt during the escape in the middle of the night.
Pretend you are Samuel. Write a letter that he might have written when he was a slave describing his life.  Then write a letter that he might have written describing his new life as a free person.

 

Nobody Gonna Turn Me ‘Round: Stories and Songs of Resistance

  1. How was the decision in Brown v. Board of Education significant?
  2. If you were a black Southern parent in 1955, would you have let your child integrate an all-white school?  Explain.
  3. If you were a black southern child in 1955 do you think you would have integrated an all-white school?  Explain.
  4. Why do you think Emmett Till’s murder changed the way Anne Moody felt about her everyday life?
  5. The officer who arrested Rosa Parks said he was just “doing his job.” Do you agree with that?  Explain.
  6. How do you think it helped African Americans to write and sing songs about their experiences?
  7. If you were a black Southerner during this time, what role would you have playedin the movement? Explain.
  8. Explain the meaning of:  Klu Klux Klan; speaking “improperly”; segregation; MIA; nonviolent direct action; mass action; segregationists; desegregation; role-playing; sit-in movement; “keep your eyes on the prize”; freedom rides; “We Shall Overcome”; self-evident.


United No More! Stories of the Civil War

  1. How was life in the North different from life in the South?
  2. As Julia approached the military review, how did she feel?
  3. Why was Julia inspired to write the new poem?
  4. What was Benjamin Butler so afraid of that he enacted such strict laws? What do you think of how Butler behaved during the occupation?
  5. Wealthy white southern women during this era were often viewed as "dainty" and "ladylike." Does Eugenia Phillips fit this stereotype? Explain.
  6. Eugenia kept a diary. Write two weeks' entries describing what her life was really like.
  7. How do you think Mary Jackson felt as the protest progressed?
  8. What would you have done to feed your family if you were a woman in Richmond?
  9. Why do you think Shaw and Carney were praised as heroes?
  10. Why do you think Farragut risked the lives of his men?
  11. What did Lincoln mean in his Second Inaugural Address when he said: "with malice toward none, with charity for all?"
  12. Why did Robert E. Lee surrender?
  13. Why do people think the American civil war was so tragic?
  14. If you lived in the South, how would that have influenced your view of the Civil War? If you live in the North, how would that have influenced the way you view the war?
  15. Vocabulary: hymn; grand review; detachment; magic lantern; bayonet; "persuader"; emancipate; "silks"; ironclad; spyglass; malice; buckskin; Seneca.

 

The School Is Not White

  1. Why did the plantation overseer tell the Carters not to send their children to the white school?
  2. What do you think the Carters thought would happen to their children at the white school?
  3. Why were the white children so mean to the Carters?
  4. Why did the Carter children stay in the school when they were hurt or angry?
  5. Who do you think shot at the Carter’s house? Why did they do that?
  6. What does the author mean by “the Carters watched their children ‘go off to war armed only with love?'”
  7. Why did the children’s books feel “heavier than any hundred-pound sack of cotton?”
  8. Were you ever scared to do something, but you did it anyway? Why did you do it?
  9. What did you feel when you read this book?
  10. Explain the meaning of: record; record player; mocking; overseer; Quaker; sharecropper.

 

The Secret Seder

  1. Why does Jacques cross himself in front of the church?
  2. Why does Jacques want to go to the Seder?
  3. Why do the men have to celebrate in secret?
  4. What does the old man mean when he says, “This is a dark time for our people?”
  5. When the men say, “Next year in Yerushalayim.” what are they hoping for?
  6. How do you think Jacques felt walking down the mountain with his father?
  7. Was Jacques brave to go to the Seder? Explain why or why not.
  8. How do the illustrations help tell the story?
  9. What differences are there between the illustrations in the village and the illustrations at the Seder?
  10. Explain the meaning of: Seder; “black boot men”; prophet; matzah; Pharaoh; Holocaust.



In the Promised Land: Lives of Jewish Americans

  1. Why do you think the author wanted to tell the stories in the book?
  2. Why did Governor Stuyvesant make life so difficult for the Jews?
  3. Why did Lillian Wald choose to live on the Lower East Side and work, instead of returning to medical school?
  4. What did Pauline Newman’s “union” do? Why is it important?
  5. Why did Ira Hirschman row out to the boat even though he could not go aboard?
  6. Think about the stories and explain how each of the people was brave in his or her own way.
  7. Each of the people in the book did extraordinary things. Some of the people did things that helped make life better. What were they?
  8. Which was your favorite story in the book? Why?
  9. Explain the meaning of: anti-Semitic; daguerreotypes; visiting nurses; manacles; concentration camp; refugee; vaccine; Holocaust.


John’s Secret Dreams: The Life of John Lennon

  1. “Twas brillig, and the slithy toves” is part of Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky.” Read the poem and explain what it means.
  2. Explain how the lyrics of John’s songs on different pages in the book add to the telling of his life story. What do you think of the author’s choices of lyrics?
  3. The book talks about John feeling bad at different times in his life. When you feel bad, what do you do to make yourself feel better?
  4. Why do you think John was scared when he wanted to leave the Beatles?
  5. The author writes: “Now it's up to us to make John's dream for the world come true.” What “dream” is the author talking about? What can you do to help?
  6. Vocabulary: “Beatlemania”; meditation; civil rights.
  7. Musical Vocabulary: composer; skiffle; washboard; melody; upward slides; rock and roll.

 


Free at Last! Stories and Songs of Emancipation

  1. Why does the author write that the years described in this book are “one of the most shameful periods in American history?”
  2. What were the Black Codes? Why were they created?
  3. Why did white Southerners not want their former slaves to become equals? What did they do to try to keep them from fighting for their rights?
  4. In what way did music “sustain the spirit?”
  5. Why were so many whites comfortable with Booker T. Washington and his “policy of accommodation?” Why were so many black Americans angry with his ideas?
  6. Why was the North considered “The Promised Land?” Was the North what black southerners expected it to be? Why or why not?
  7. Explore the Harlem Renaissance. Read works by Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, Arna Bontemps, and James Weldon Johnson.
  8. List the ways that black Americans kept “resisting” unfair laws?
  9. Explain the meaning of: “apprenticeship” laws; Thirteenth Amendment; abolitionist; Freedmen’s Bureau; Fourteenth Amendment; grandfather clause; Exoduster; segregation; night rides; convict leasing; sharecropper; “separate but equal” policies.


Victory or Death! Stories of the American Revolution

  1. Assume the identity of patriot Francis Salvador or loyalist James Galloway. Give a speech, stating your arguments for or against independence.
  2. Why was Breed’s Hill chosen as a fort?
  3. Why were the troops so upset by Pollard’s death?
  4. If the British won at Bunker Hill, why was this battle a turning point in American confidence?
  5. Why did Tennent and Harris quote from the Bible?
  6. Write your father, who is fighting the British, about your life at home in Boston during British occupation.
  7. Why was Washington so angry at the men of the Fifth Virginia Regiment?
  8. Why did Washington observe the battle instead of fight with his men?
  9. Research the lives of Nathanael Greene, John Glover, and Henry Knox.
  10. In what ways were Sybil and Robert Shurtliff unusual for their era?
  11. Why did Grace Growden Galloway stay in Philadelphia?
  12. How do you feel about how the patriots treated Grace Growden Galloway and other loyalists? What would you have done if you were a patriot?
  13. Why did Lafayette embrace James Armistead?
  14. Give arguments for/against women being soldiers.
  15. How did the writers’ style affect the telling of these stories?

 

We Are the Many: A Picture Book of American Indians

  1. How did American Indians learn their history?
  2. Tisquantum’s people had died because of disease brought by white people. Why do you think he still helped the Pilgrims?
  3. Why did Lone Dog choose buffalo skin to paint pictures on?
  4. Why were the Omahas forced to move out of their earth dwellings and into log cabins?
  5. Why did Maria Martinez teach her pottery-making process to her people?
  6. List the Indian nations in this book. Where are their reservations today?
  7. Which was your favorite story in the book? Why?
  8. Explain the meaning of: alewives; colonist; raiding party; expedition; interpreter; malaria; knead; foxhole. top


No More! Stories and Songs of Slave Resistance
  1. In the Introduction, Doreen Rappaport writes about African Americans who resisted slavery by living their "inner" freedom. "Their music, culture, and community nurtured them until they were free," she says. What does she mean by "inner freedom"?
  2. How did slaves hold onto their memory of their lives and culture in Africa? How was this a form of resistance?
  3. What role did faith or spiritual belief play in the lives of enslaved African Americans? In what way was their practice of Christianity a form of resistance?
  4. Many slave owners argued that slaves were happy with their way of life, as shown by the fact that they so often sang and played music. After reading the songs in NO MORE! would you agree or disagree with this? Why?
  5. Why did white Southern lawmakers forbid slaves to learn to read and write? Why did slaves risk punishment and break the law to learn to read?
  6. Why did President Lincoln not want free blacks to fight with the Union army? What do you think of his choice?
  7. Which is your favorite story in NO MORE? Why?
  8. After reading NO MORE!, what did you learn about slavery that you didn't know before?
  9. Explain the meaning of: Middle Passage, mutinies, trickster tales, hush harbors, secret schools, spirituals, abolitionists, Drinking Gourd, Underground Railroad, Emancipation Proclamation, and Thirteenth Amendment.
  10. How did the artist’s style affect the storytelling? top

Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

  1. What does the author mean by Dr. King’s "Big Words?"
  2. Why did the whites in the South put up the "White Only?" signs?
  3. Why did young Martin feel bad when he read these signs? Describe how you would have felt.
  4. Why were the black Americans who protested for equal rights told to stop by whites?
  5. Why were blacks who worked for equal rights jailed, beaten or even murdered?
  6. Why did Dr. King not want people to fight with their fists? Do you think someone is brave or cowardly when they don’t fight with their fists or with guns?
  7. Explain the meaning of: hymns; segregation; civil rights; Nobel Peace Prize; sit-in; discrimination.
  8. How did the artist’s style affect the storytelling? top

Freedom River

  1. Why would John Parker hire slave-owner Jim? Why would Jim Shrofe work for an ex-slave?
  2. Why did Parker take a risk that put his life in danger?
  3. Why did Parker feel responsible for Sarah being separated from her baby?
  4. Why did Parker tell Jim Shrofe that he had never seen his shoes before?
  5. Explain the meaning of: skiff; taunt; plantation; Underground Railroad.
  6. How did the artist’s style affect the storytelling? top

Dirt on Their Skirts: The Story of the Young Women Who Won The World Championship

  1. During what war does this story take place?
  2. Why did women take on men’s jobs during the war?
  3. What happened to the women after the war was over? Why do you think it happened?
  4. Did you ever hear of any of these athletes before reading this book? If not, why do you think you had not?
  5. Why do you think that the women wore skirts to play baseball?
  6. Find books about other women athletes. Make a list of their accomplishments.
  7. Talk about how the author uses these words: usual; broadcast; panther; lariat.

Escape from Slavery

  1. Why did slaves risk their lives to escape when they could have stayed with their masters and lived?
  2. Why were free people, black and white, willing to risk their lives to help slaves escape?
  3. In the story Pretending, the Colonel says that Jane "has it good" with his family. Do you think that is true? Why or why not?
  4. Read up on the 1851 Fugitive Slave Law. Why did people in the free states allow this law?
  5. Which is your favorite story in Escape from Slavery? Why?
  6. What other ways have you read about slaves escaping?
  7. Explain the meaning of: Underground Railroad; immigrated; writ; militant; abolitionist; Vigilance Committee. top

The Boston Coffee Party

  1. Why were the women and girls sewing shirts?
  2. What message would you stitch into a shirt?
  3. Why were the women so mad at Merchant Thomas?
  4. Why do the women want to tell everyone not to buy from Merchant Thomas? What do they hope will happen?
  5. Why did Merchant Thomas lock all of his coffee in a warehouse, instead of selling it?
  6. How did the Boston Coffee Party compare with the Boston Tea Party? Describe the things that were the same and those that were different.
  7. Why did the women think it was okay to take the coffee without paying for it?
  8. Explain the meaning of: sewing party; greedy; shilling; warehouse; cobblestone; the word"quarter" in the quote from Abigail Adams’ in The Author’s Note. top

Be the Judge/Be the Jury series

for The Lizzie Borden Trial, The Sacco-Vanzetti Trial, and The Alger Hiss Trial:

  1. To prove that the defendants were guilty, the prosecution set out to establish certain facts. How did they establish:
    1. motive;
    2. premeditation;
    3. the opportunity to commit the crime;
    4. the means and capacity to commit the crime.
  2. Which witness or witnesses helped prove any of the facts in #1? Who did you believe? not believe? Why?
  3. The defense set out to prove that the defendants were not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Did the defense:
    1. cast doubt on damaging testimony given by prosecution witnesses;
    2. establish an alibi;
    3. show that others might have had the opportunity to commit the crime.
  4. Which witnesses helped prove any of the facts in #1? Why?
  5. List the evidence that convinced you that the defendants were guilty or not guilty. Include the names of the witnesses who gave evidence.

for Tinker vs. Des Moines

  1. How was life in schools in 1965 different from life today? Use pages 19 and 20 to prompt discussion.
  2. Before the students read the decision on page 126, break them up into groups of nine and have them simulate the justices arguing the case and coming to a conclusion. To decide whether or not the armbands disrupted school life they must decide:
    1. Are armbands free speech?
    2. Was the ban against the armbands constitutional?
    3. Did the armbands materially and substantially disrupt education and discipline?
  3. Have the groups work together to write a decision. Then have each group read their decision aloud. In giving reasons for their decision, the "justices" must cite the witnesses whose evidence helped them form their opinion. top

 

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